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24 April 2024

UK - Manchester-based audio specialists, tube uk, has taken delivery of a new d&b KSL line array speaker system plus assorted rigging elements in a significant investment underlining the strength, diversity and buoyance of tube’s business and operational planning for the immediate and longer-term future.

This initial order comprises 20 x KSL8 and four KSL12 top cabinets plus eight KSL-SUBS, a complete new system which is added to tube’s existing stocks of d&b Y and V-Series together with the associated D80 amplifiers that the company already owns.

tube works extensively in the music, performance, arts, and corporate / industrial event sectors, also specialising in managing audio for quirky, complex, and challenging projects.

Since the post-pandemic restart, shows have been steadily growing, getting more sonically ambitious and bei

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24 April 2024

Finland – The popular TV contest Tähdet, tähdet returned for 2024 with a host of singers belting out numbers ranging from 1980s pop to Eurovision classics. Broadcast on Finnish channel Nelonen, audiences watched performances backed by nine Roe Vanish V8T LED screens with live and pre-made content manipulated using tvONE's Green Hippo brand of Hippotizer Media Servers.

“The set design required visual appeal tailored to the viewers both in the studio and at home,” explains Varpu Sipilä from Finnish visual design company Visual45, which was brought in to create the lighting and visual elements. “Lighting design and operation, as well as video content production and operation, played a significant role. Particularly, the use of video surfaces was emphasized to enhance the atmosphere of the performances.”

On stage, the Visual45 team

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24 April 2024

Germany - When updating its auditorium lighting, the historic opera house on Hamburg's Dammtorstraße opted for LED double-focus downlights from Erco, achieving not only energy savings in excess of 80 per cent but also lighting quality and high visual comfort.

The citizens of Hamburg take great pride in their opera house, a cultural institution with a lineage tracing back to the original opera house at Gänsemarkt, established in 1678. In 1827, it found its new home on Dammtorstraße. Today, under the leadership of general music director Kent Nagano, the State Opera stands as one of Europe's premier opera houses.

The existing structure, designed by architect Gerhard Weber (1909-1986), was inaugurated in 1955. Recognised as a protected monument, it features a spacious glass façade and an elegant auditorium that accommodates 1,690 spectators.

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24 April 2024

Japan - ARTA Mechanics & Inspirations is a converted warehouse in the Shinkiba area of Tokyo that serves as a hub where visitors can immerse themselves in the complete ARTA brand experience. The installation of Genelec’s 4000 Series loudspeakers throughout the space elevates that experience.

ARTA's journey began in 1997 as a project aimed at nurturing world-class drivers. Born from a collaboration between Japan's leading F1 racing driver, Aguri Suzuki, and leading Japanese car parts manufacturer, Autobacs Seven, today ARTA is the largest racing team in Japan. Aside from its racing endeavours, ARTA is also a recognisable brand with a range of high quality, luxury products to its name including custom cars, watches, and apparel. The inception of ARTA Mechanics and Inspirations was a pivotal step in promoting the significance of the brand, offering a show

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24 April 2024

USA - British progressive metal band Haken recently wrapped their North American tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. An Evening with Haken featured the band playing their recent record Fauna in its entirety as well as fan favourites. Lighting designer Harry Merrison of Hazzmo sought to formulate a new lighting design that would be simple yet memorable as well as compact and easily constructed.

“We wanted to create something that could match the versatility of Haken’s music,” explained Merrison. “With the progressive rock/metal genre Haken write, there’s a lot of ebbs and flows, lots of opportunity to create different looks and lighting styles. With the music bouncing between heavy metal riffs, classic rock, big ballad, electronic, and everything in-between, the rig needed to be capable of matching every energy a

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24 April 2024

France - The distinctive folded concrete triangular-shaped vaulted ceiling of the CNIT (National Centre for Industry and Technology) building at the La Défense CBD in Paris has been subtly illuminated with Anolis Calumma XL SC LED luminaires.

This new lighting project is part of a modernisation initiative led by architect Jean-Luc Crochon of Cro&Co Architecture who approached BOA Light Studio to create a plan to enhance the underside of the ceiling with lighting.

The scheme is designed to bring a ‘living-breathing’ resonance to the structure, pulling the texturing, nuance and luminance of daylight and the sky outside into the shell-like atrium space of the building that now houses multiple shops, retail outlets and offices as well as a hotel and convention centre.

The brief from the client, the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield management te

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23 April 2024

USA - Sphere Entertainment presented a special Exosphere content show in celebration of Earth Day featuring work from multi-Grammy Award-winning Grateful Dead and Dead & Company percussionist Mickey Hart, and filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg.

Hart’s and Schwartzberg’s artwork combined into an 11-minute content show that ran through the day. Their art featured individually at various times throughout the day as well. Hart and Schwartzberg are the latest artists to design for the Exosphere as part of Sphere’s XO/Art programme, which features artists’ work on Sphere’s immersive exterior. 

“Our XO/Art programme continues to make art available and accessible to the public in a highly innovative and unique way, both in Las Vegas and around the world,” said Jennifer Koester, president, Sphere Business Operations at Sphere Entertainment. “Mi

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23 April 2024

UK - It is a year since Lightroom, a performance space in the heart of London’s King’s Cross, opened its doors. The Moonwalkers is the latest experience at the London venue, following the successful David Hockney show, Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away).

In this experience, The Holoplot X1 Matrix Array helps to transport audiences ‘out of this world’, showcasing the impact of its powerful software toolset on the creative workflow and audio quality.

This new production is narrated and co-written by Tom Hanks and includes original NASA audio. The score is composed by Anne Nitkin and was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Tom Hanks said in a recent interview, “There’s 1,000s of speakers here, and when the music begins, it’s not coming from a particular source, it’s coming

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23 April 2024

UK - Johnny Marr embarked on his UK tour, The Spirit Power, earlier this month, finishing at Rock City, Nottingham on 14 April.

Lighting designer Ed Warren, of Next Level Lights, put together a compact yet impactful lighting design for the 10-date tour with Ayrton laser-sourced Cobra fixtures playing a key role.

The full rig included 16 Ayrton Cobra rigged on two over-stage trusses with four more Cobra units sited upstage of the band, the latter of which formed the touring floor package.

“We used them as big, bright wash lights with which to blast through the performers and backline,” explains Warren, “and as very tight, bright beam lights moving ominously around the venue for the more ‘clubby’ dance moments.

“But the main reason I chose them was for the big mirrorball moments later in the set. I wanted to see the

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23 April 2024

Austria - Tim Ferns from Swiss sound design collective, audiopool, recently specified a 64-channel TiMax SoundHub as the foundation of their design for Rock Me Amadeus, Vereinigte Bühne Wien (VBW)’s latest in-house production, playing at Vienna’s Ronacher theatre.

Called on by VBW as trusted audio design partners to create an immersive and intimate audio environment to engage the audience closely with the lavish and complex production, audiopool’s Tim Ferns asserts, “There was no other choice but to implement this with TiMax.”

Rock Me Amadeus chronicles the tumultuous life and 23-year career of the Austrian pop star and showman Johann ‘Hans’ Hölzl, better known by his stage name Falco. The fast-paced and complex production incorporated a diversity of musical numbers ranging from 80’s synth pop to power ballads, choral parts

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23 April 2024

UK - Within 15 minutes of completing victory over Preston North End on Easter Monday, Birmingham City’s St. Andrews stadium had been transformed into a rock concert venue.

The production team behind the staging - enabling local heroes UB40 to kick off their world tour and announce their new UB45 album release - was Martin Audio partner, 22live.

At the same time the football club was able to reveal its new branding. Henceforth known as St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park, the stadium provided an appropriate setting for this post match entertainment. But first 22live, led by Paul Timmins, had many challenges to overcome - not least where to site the 15 ground stacks of Martin Audio WPC and WPS line array, as well as the speed of deployment to get the show underway immediately after the final whistle.

“I always wanted to do this really

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23 April 2024

USA - 1 Sound is releasing its new 3D audio design prediction software, Auralis, this June. Auralis is a free downloadable 3D software application that is a multipurpose sound design tool. It enables precise, high-resolution, full-colour audio predictions of your loudspeaker design in a three-dimensional space.

With Auralis, you can import various types of files including CAD and SketchUp 3D files, or easily create your own three-dimensional space with its intuitive interface. Auralis’ user experience is designed with easy organization and grouping tools. Auralis is streamlined and straightforward with clear direction to build/import your space, adjust system mechanical information with 1 Sound rigging, 3D acoustical mapping, SPL predictions, and phase coherency.

Auralis is an accurate measurement tool that utilises information that was collected f

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23 April 2024

Canada - PK Sound has welcomed Calgary-based live production house Unlimited Video Staging (UVS) to its growing partner network following the company’s investment in a T8 robotic line source system. UVS has already taken advantage of T8’s Multi-Axis Robotics to mitigate noise pollution while still delivering high-impact live entertainment in densely populated urban areas.

“UVS has a longstanding reputation as a national leader in video production technologies and services, so when we decided to expand our offerings into live audio, we sought cutting-edge solutions that would elevate the experiences we deliver for our clients and partners,” says Aaron Buchanan, founder and CEO of UVS. “PK Sound’s robotic line arrays sound incredible and offer an unprecedented degree of control in shaping acoustic coverage to the contours of any venue or environmen

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23 April 2024

USA - Las Vegas-based OSA International provided Ayrton Huracán LT and Zonda 9 FX lighting fixtures, grandMA3 consoles and MDG TheONE atmospheric generators to lighting designer Aldo Visentin for the North American leg of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli’s arena tour. Ayrton, MA Lighting and MDG are all brands exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Entertainment.

Andrea Bocelli kicked off his run of US and Canadian dates with a Valentine’s Day performance in Raleigh, North Carolina and wrapped his tour in Detroit on 14 April. OSA International provided the full package of lighting, rigging, audio and video equipment for the tour. 

A member of Show-Crew, Aldo Visentin has been Bocelli’s lighting designer since 2006. He used Ayrton fixtures on Bocelli’s previous set, which toured for almost two years, primarily in Europe. He designed the

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23 April 2024

Europe – Area Four Industries’ A4I.TV Trussing and Rigging Television has released a new educational video in which technical director, Norbert Tripp discusses the correct and, most importantly, safe use of Cubes in Truss assemblies.

As a member of the Rigging Commandos group, Norbert brings a wealth of valuable knowledge, experience, and tricks to the field of trussing and rigging.

The video takes a close look at the different types of available Cubes. ‘You will learn what properties they have and that the installation situation is decisive as to whether a Light-duty or Heavy-duty Cube should be used. So, you can be sure of achieving maximum safety and effectiveness for your structure.’

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23 April 2024

USA - The 1,500-capacity Showtime Theatre show lounge and central entertainment hub of the 306m long Carnival Magic cruise ship has been upgraded with the installation of 30 x new Robe Painte, 30 x LEDBeam 350 and 12 x miniPointe moving lights, which were installed while the ship was still in operation around Miami.

Co-ordinating the upgrade project was Carnival Cruise Line fleet supervisor for lighting Silviu Ardelean and lighting manager Alexander Nelson, who explained that the refit saw the replacement of the original moving lights.

The three-tiered show lounge is located over decks 3, 4 and 5 of Carnival Magic and serves as the ship’s main live performance space, presenting a wide array of different productions. David Horner redesigned the venue’s lighting, incorporating the new fixtures, and giving it a new twist. However, everyone was keen

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23 April 2024

Investment Opportunity - Industry body Creative UK has launched a general election manifesto urging the next government to treat the arts as an "investment opportunity, not a cost".

The Royal Shakespeare Company, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London’s National Theatre are among the organisations quoted in the manifesto, which is entitled Our Creative Future. New funding models, advocacy for freelancers, intellectual property protection and protections for UK creatives in international trade deals are among the hallmarks of the manifesto’s "vision for the future" ahead of a general election later this year.

The manifesto calls for "radical new action" towards these aims, including greater access to creative education and the upholding of the UK’s "gold standard" IP protections for the cultural and creative industries "in the age of arti

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22 April 2024

UK - The recently announced Profile Awards have created much interest within the industry, with sponsorship take up for all the 16 Awards. The Headline Sponsor is Ayrton with the TV Awards being sponsored by ChamSys, ELP, LCR, Light Initiative, Roxxlight and Version 2 Lights. The Theatre Awards are sponsored by Chauvet, Elation, ETC, Fix8, GLP, TSL, SLX and Vari-Lite; the pre-show bar is sponsored by Ambersphere Solutions and the Goody Bags at the end of the evening are sponsored by JLL.

The Profile Awards have been created and are coordinated by Durham and Jennie Marenghi in association with the ABTT, the ALPD and the STLD; the Awards recognise lighting design excellence in theatre and television in the UK and the inaugural event will take place at the Alexandra Palace theatre on 6 June 2024.

Alongside eight specific Theatre awards and six TV awards

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22 April 2024

USA - On the winter leg of Disturbed’s Take Back Your Life tour, Alex Mungal created a raw, powerful visual dimension that matched the intensity of the music.

Featuring multiple layers of lighting fixtures that projected colours and pixel effects in every direction - and often enveloped the band in brilliant hues – in addition to serving up volcanic eruptions of pyro effects and fog, the production design fused seamlessly with the gripping music to create an overwhelmingly moving and all-embracive experience.

Mungal and the design team were able to work their magic using an array of tools supplied by Premier Global Production of Nashville. “We had so many fun instruments to play with,” he said. “It was great working with the pyro team on arrangements and programming to find moments where lighting would pass off focus to pyro, or ev

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22 April 2024

USA – EAW has introduced its new UXA4416 Amplifiers along with a companion update to its Resolution software. UXA4416 represents a new generation of EAW four-channel DSP amplifiers, offering high-power class D amplification, innovative processing and analogue/digital audio management.

Pairing seamlessly with the brand’s KF and SB Series products, these new amps ensure stability and continuity for KF passive line source systems deployed at stadiums, arenas, houses of worship, amphitheatres, outdoor festivals and more. 

“Through the creation of our own line of amplifiers, we are unifying all EAW system packages,” says TJ Smith, president of EAW. “Our ongoing strategy makes cross rental more predictable and reliable by deploying products that are optimised by EAW engineering.”

This generation of amplifiers provides clean, robust pow